Comforted by the power of reading

Nina Sankovitch couldn't go fast enough or far enough to escape the grief that followed the death of her eldest sister at 46 from bile duct cancer.

Sankovitch kicked off her shoes and found refuge in books. She curled up and read a book a day for a year, which she chronicles in "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair," this year's selection for One Book One San Joaquin.

Everyone is invited to check out the book from the library and engage in a month of activities related to Sankovitch's journey, which begins Saturday with an appearance by Nancy Pearl at the Janet Leigh Theatre at University of the Pacific and ends Sept. 28 with Sankovitch's visit to Cesar Chavez Central Library.

In between, the library has several events scheduled, including Monday's Ideal Bookshelf Art Reception. Librarians Lisa Aschiras of the Manteca branch and John Esquivel in Tracy asked 35 community leaders to submit a list of their 10 favorite books. Those lists were then turned over to local artists to be turned into a visual presentation. Those works will be unveiled Monday at 6 p.m. at the Cesar Chavez Central Library, then will be on display at all of the branches.

In addition to the One Book One San Joaquin events, San Joaquin A+ has scheduled additional programs, expanding Reads Week to Reads Month. They include activities for homes, schools, churches and the traditional Sunday Sundae ice cream social/author's visit at University of the Pacific.

All of the planned programs focus on reading.

Long before Sankovitch's beloved sister lost her brief battle with cancer, Pearl was well versed in the power of the written word.

Working as a librarian in Seattle, Pearl organized what is believed to be the first community-wide read, What if All of Seattle Read the Same Book, in 1998. When the Chicago Public Library later staged a similar event, the idea took hold, the National Endowment for the Arts offered grants in support, and communities across the country began reading together.

San Joaquin County joined in 2002, selecting "To Kill a Mockingbird" as its first selection.

The Seattle library, armed with a three-year grant from the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, selected for its first What if All of Seattle Reads the Same Book, "The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Banks. It's the story of a town coping with the tragic death of many of its children in a bus accident. A year later the selection was "A Lesson Before Dying," Ernest Gaines' heartbreaking novel about a young black man in 1940s Louisiana condemned to die for a murder he didn't commit. Both authors visited Seattle to discuss their books.

"Each time, we would get people who would say this is the first time they'd been to the library," Pearl said. "When we brought (Gaines) in and he spoke, we had African-American teenagers, boys who traditionally are not thought of as major readers, come to the library to listen to him talk. We have no way of knowing whether those audiences came back. There's no hard data.

"I'm a pessimist in everything else in my life, but I do believe this kind of thing changes people's lives."

Pearl's belief was validated last year when she was asked to visit Bosnia and train book discussion leaders for a group reading event held by the U.S. Embassy for Bosnian teenagers.

"It was so moving for me to be there," Pearl said. "It was life changing, in a sense. It was affirming everything I'd always believed."

Whether in small book clubs or communitywide, Pearl always has seen books as an ice breaker, an avenue to open up discussions about issues that matter.

"I believe books have the power to ... break down barriers between people," Pearl said. "By talking about books, people can see even though somebody doesn't look like them, is a different age, ethnicity or race, they can share love of a book. Plus, the thing about book clubs I was always interested in is we don't have a forum, we're not taught to have civil discussions in this country. I think book groups go a long way in helping people realize they can disagree about something and still remain civil in a discussion of it.

"The last thing book clubs do is really help us expand our world by making clear we all read a book in a different way. We all read different versions of the same book. We bring our background, our experiences, everything we are to how we read a book. To hear someone else's reading of it is valuable."

In Seattle, community-read books deal with important social issues or controversial subjects that lend themselves to discussion.

"Tolstoy and the Purple Chair" is a different type of book, but Pearl finds its selection exciting.

"It will give people a lot of books to add to their reading list. I think that's great," Pearl said.

She's responsible for adding to those lists herself.

Her first book, "Book Lust," published in 2003, and subtitled "Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason," features hundreds of titles in nearly 200 categories.

"I like her selections," Aschiras said. "She has great categories. It's not just by, say, fiction, but by great first lines. You wouldn't think of picking a book by a great first line."

"I was a writer," Pearl said. "I write short stories and had some poetry published, but then I put it aside. These characters (a young married couple) kept saying to me, 'Write about us.' So I decided this time to do it."

Her writing, though, is interrupted by her reading and her encouraging others, like entire communities, to read.